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Lancaster City Council has approved the city police department’s request to increase the geographic area where officers are allowed to take their police vehicles home with them at the end of their shifts.
Under the new policy, officers living within a 30-mile radius of the police department will be able to take their assigned vehicles home with them. The previous policy applied only within the borders of Lancaster County.
The vote was 5-1 at Tuesday night’s council meeting, with Linda Blackmon dissenting.

Hope, as the saying goes, springs eternal.
After 15 years in the political wilderness, state Democrats are feeling positive about their chances of re-taking the governor’s mansion in 2018.
At least that was the vibe Friday afternoon, when Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rep. James Smith of Columbia came to town to officially announce that Lancaster’s Mandy Powers Norrell would be his running mate as lieutenant governor.

A Buford Middle School employee was struck by lightning Friday during a field trip in the mountains north of Greenville, and she was airlifted to a burn center in Augusta, Ga.
Kristina Heaton, an instructional assistant at the school, was released from the hospital Sunday and returned to work Monday, but went home because of lingering pain.
“When I touched that cord, it just lit me up,” Heaton said Tuesday. “It just threw me up in the air.”

Buford softball players had to choose between going to their prom and playing in the Upper State Playoffs championship game Friday evening, because the S.C. High School League would not delay their rained-out Thursday game until Saturday.
Parents, players, coaches and administrators were fuming Friday.

Firefighters responded to a house fire at 220 Eastview Court about 10 a.m. Thursday and were able to get it under control before it caused significant damage.

Lancaster Fire Chief Justin McLellan said the fire started in the kitchen.
“The homeowner was cooking something that flared up and got out of control,” he said, noting that a woman and her daughter got out unharmed.

After a prolonged winter and short spring, get ready for a mid-summery heat wave this weekend.
Lancaster County temperatures are expected to reach the 90s from today through Monday, with lows in the mid-60s, according to the National Weather Service. Record-setting high temperatures are possible.
Today’s targeted high is 91 degrees, with a scorching 94 Saturday, 95 Sunday and 92 Monday. Tuesday will drop back to a more typical 86.

Odell Blackmon was Lancaster County’s ultimate people person.
For three decades, he delivered Lance snacks to company break rooms, grocery stores and gas stations all over the county, and at every stop, people were delighted to see him walk in. They called him the Cracker Man, and he brightened everyone’s day.
“Odell was so personable that I don’t think he ever met a stranger,” said the Rev. Otis Lathan, his pastor at Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church. “And if they were, they weren’t strangers very long.”

KERSHAW – You’re eating at the 521 Filling Station on Hampton Street. Suddenly, you notice another customer with swept-back hair and thick sideburns wearing a ball cap.
For a split second, you make eye contact. When the man winks and smiles, you’re almost hypnotized and the wheels in your mind inexplicably turn….
“Hey, isn’t that Elvis?”
Relax. It’s not.
It’s just Travis Powell, and yes, he’s messing with you.

Two people were shot, one fatally, while riding in a car just north of Kershaw early Thursday afternoon, causing the lockdown of two nearby schools as deputies conducted a manhunt for the shooter.
“Right now, I just don’t want to guess at what happened,” said Lancaster County Sheriff Barry Faile, still supervising the search at press time. “We’re processing everything, trying to piece it all together.”